# Coding handoffs

> Carry an investigation into a coding assistant with its evidence and task context.

A coding handoff carries an investigation into the assistant working in your repository. Meta Agent prepares the task and supporting context; the coding assistant claims it through MCP and reports its outcome back to the conversation.

## Prepare a task

Establish the problem in a [Meta Agent investigation](/docs/platform/meta-agent/investigations.md). Include the relevant evidence, intended behavior and acceptance criteria.

Send `/handoff` in the conversation. You can add a task description after the command to specify the change you want.

Meta Agent prepares a task from the conversation or asks for clarification. Review the generated prompt, then copy it into your coding assistant. Radiant does not launch a local process or open your working copy.

## Connect the coding assistant

The assistant needs [Radiant MCP access](/docs/platform/integrations/mcp.md) to the same project with the coding-handoff capability enabled. Use a separate credential for each client that needs independent task ownership.

The assistant claims the handoff, receives the task and investigation context, and works in its own coding environment. Ownership belongs to the claiming MCP credential, so another client using that same credential shares its handoff authority.

## Ask follow-up questions

During implementation, the coding assistant can send questions back to Meta Agent. Questions run asynchronously in the original investigation. The assistant can continue working and retrieve the response when it is ready.

Delegated questions run with the connections and effective tool permissions of the participant who prepared the handoff; that participant must still have access to the conversation. Those tools can include external actions. Questions that require interactive tool approval fail with a reason rather than opening a human approval flow. Resolve implementation decisions and human approvals in the coding assistant’s session.

Completing the handoff ends any unanswered questions.

## Review the outcome

The coding assistant reports completion or failure with a summary. Radiant shows the original prompt, questions, responses and final outcome in the conversation’s handoff activity.

Review the actual code and verification in the coding environment. A reported completed handoff records the assistant’s outcome; it does not merge or deploy the changes.

See the [MCP tool reference](/docs/platform/reference/mcp-tools.md#coding-handoffs) for the handoff tools and retry rules.